Move over, Thomas’ English Muffins! We got tired of waiting for you to come up with a gluten free muffin, so we made one ourselves! These gluten free English muffins rival yours with all the nooks and crannies we’ve been missing 🙂
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My husband grew up in Pennsylvania, which is a huge area for English muffins, specifically Thomas’ English muffins. He couldn’t stop oohing and ahhing when I made my own gluten free version and served them for breakfast one morning. He said they were “amazing!!”
Then he went on to state “you should contact Thomas’ and tell them you have a gluten free version of their English muffins they should sell.” Haha! I love how much he supports me in everything I do! (On a side note, he does not need to eat gluten free, just loves what I make gf so he eats it willingly)!
What Are English Muffins?
If you’ve been living under a rock or aren’t in America, you don’t know what an English muffin is. But where in the world did they come from? Samuel Thomas, an Englishman who emigrated to the US many years ago, opened a bakery. He invented “toaster crumpets,” which were like regular English crumpets but pre-cut (fork split) so that they could pull apart easily.
The toaster crumpets were a huge hit and Thomas’ English Muffins were born! Many people have made homemade versions of these, but the Thomas’ recipe is closely guarded.
Big name commercial bakeries rarely devote time to making gluten free versions of their products (maybe one day they will-fingers crossed), so we’ve got to come up with our own plan. And these gluten free English muffins are just perfect, and technically could also be called Thomas’ English Muffins (my last name is Thomas)!
My Favorite Tools for Making English Muffins
Neither of these are absolutely necessary in making gluten free English muffins. However, I do feel they make things a lot easier in creating the best muffins possible.
- An electric skillet. I’ve used an electric skillet for many years, just like my mom, mainly for braising meats. For the sake of English muffins, it works so well because it almost acts like an oven and skillet all in one. It’s absolutely perfect for making English muffins. However, if you don’t have an electric skillet, you can always use a skillet that has a tight-fitting lid. I personally like the fact that you can know the exact temperature of what you’re cooking with an electric skillet.
- English muffin rings. These rings help make your homemade gluten free English muffins neat and tidy and perfectly round. Of course, it doesn’t really matter as long as they taste great. If you want nice and round muffins, I’d suggest getting these, though. They’re cheap, and they’re great for other uses as well, such as perfect pancakes or as an egg mold.
How To Make Gluten Free English Muffins
You really won’t believe how incredibly easy it is to make these English muffins! There’s no kneading of the dough after initial mixing, and there’s no second rise. Take the dough straight from the fridge and scoop it into your skillet (electric or otherwise). In less than 20 minutes you’ll have freshly “baked” English muffins!
Mix the dough in a stand mixer OR with a handheld mixer. This is such a loose high-hydration dough that it can even be mixed with a spoon by hand (you’ll get a workout for sure). Let the dough rise in a warm-draft free area for two hours or until doubled in size. It will be very puffy and filled with holes. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours.
Heat an electric skillet to 250 degrees F (or a skillet on your stove top over medium low heat). Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in skillet and place pre-greased muffin rings in skillet. Sprinkle bottoms with gluten free cornmeal and spoon dough into molds. Sprinkle tops with cornmeal. Cover with lid of electric skillet or tight-fitting lid and “bake” for about 7-8 minutes.
Remove cover, carefully flip rings and muffins over and “bake” for another 7-8 minutes. You can divide and add the other 1 tablespoon of butter over the tops of the muffins before you flip them if you’d like, but it’s not necessary.
Remove the cover and carefully remove the rings from the muffins using tongs. They should slide right out if you sprayed them with cooking spray before baking. Replace lid and continue to “bake” for another couple of minutes.
Make sure to fork split your gluten free English muffins so you’ll get all those great nooks and crannies. That’s the best part of an English muffin wouldn’t you say? They’re like little pockets for holding melted butter or anything else you wanna put on ’em 🙂
Gluten Free English Muffins
Ingredients
- 3¼ cups (455 g) Kim's gluten free bread flour blend
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp (16 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp rapid rise (instant or bread machine) yeast
- 2½ cups (600 ml) whole milk
- 4 tbsp butter, melted
- about ½ cup gluten free cornmeal for sprinkling
- 2 tbsp butter, for frying/baking
Instructions
- In a large bowl, weigh bread flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Whisk to combine. Using a stand mixer with the beater blade or a handheld mixer, turn on low and slowly pour in milk and butter. Increase speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. Â
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 7 days.
- Spray insides of muffin rings(if using) with nonstick spray. Heat an electric skillet (or a skillet with a lid) to medium low (about 200-250) and add 1 tbsp butter. Place muffin rings on top of melted butter and sprinkle each with cornmeal. Spoon dough into muffin rings (don't fill completely to the top as the muffins will expand to fill the rings). Sprinkle more cornmeal on top of dough in each ring. Cover the skillet and cook for about 7-8 minutes. When bottoms are browned, divide 1 tablespoon of butter over tops of muffins, if desired, and carefully flip over and, using tongs. Place lid back on skillet and continue to cook for another 7-8 minutes.Â
- Remove the lid and, using tongs, carefully remove the rings from each muffin. They should slide out easily if you greased the rings. Replace the lid and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes, just to get the sides fully "baked."
- Remove the muffins from the skillet and allow to cool fully before fork splitting and toasting.
Notes
Kim, you weren’t kidding, these are the BEST gluten free English muffins of all time! Wowza!!! I had to improvise, I don’t have a skillet or muffin rings. I first put them in a muffin pan and in the oven at 250 for 15 minutes, then took them out of the muffin pan, smooshed them a little bit because they’d puffed up, and cooked them another ten minutes. They’re ugly, but oh my goodness are they delicious!!! Thank you! Oh, I do have all the ingredients now and am using your bread flour blend. I used half this recipe for a pan pizza and it was out of this world delicious. Loved the crunchy bottom!
Hi, Pam! Thanks so much for all the kind words and for trying so many of my recipes!! I love these English muffins, too and what a great idea for improvising you had!
And that crunchy bottom is my favorite part of the pan pizza, too!
Thanks again, Pam 🙂
I’m confused. Step 4 says to remove the muffins and let cool. Step 5 says to remove the rings and finish cooking then step 6 says again to remove and cool.
I’m so sorry, Amanda! I don’t know what happened. I sure repeated myself, though.
Thank you for pointing that mistake out and I have fixed it so it’s good to go 🙂
These look great and I will try them soon! How many does the recipe make?
Hi, Janet! Thank you for catching that. Google usually picks up on any missing categories, but they didn’t on this one. The recipe makes 8 muffins. I corrected it on my post.
I hope you love them! Thanks again 🙂
Thank you for this recipe. It sounds delicious. I am wondering if you could substitute almond or coconut milk for the milk. Also, I don’t normally use sugar at all. Could I use monkfruit sweetener?
Hi, Jeanene! As far as the milk substitute, many readers have had great success with almond milk, but I’m really not sure about the sugar substitute. I’ve never used a sugar substitute in baking before so I’m not familiar enough with them to know if they’d work.
Question…. do you have the nutritional information?l
Hi, Diane!
I’m sorry, I don’t have the plugin for my website that gives the nutritional information. It costs more money for that and I’ve never felt my website needed it as readers come here when they want a substitute for something they used to have and to be jndulgent, not for nutritional purposes. In other words, we’re making these foods because we’ve been told we can’t have gluten and not because we’re wanting to be “healthier” if that makes sense 🙂
I have recently learned I have both a gluten and corn intolerance. As an avid baker I was thrown for quite a loop! I’m trying your flour blends and recipes for artisan bread and pizza as I type. 🙂 I’m curious if you have a suggestion for a cornmeal substitution for this recipe. Thanks!!
Sorry! I’ve been on vacation!! I would just leave out the cornmeal and spray the pan and rings well.
Hello! can you substitute dairy free milk in this recipe?
Yes, you can 😊
I just consumed two of the English muffins and I’m in heaven. Your recipe is easy and fabulous. Thank you for all the research work you put into creating his recipe. My taste buds thank you but my waistline is not so sure.
Sorry, meant THIS recipe. A missing T made all the difference!
Haha! You are very welcome. Thanks so much for the comment 🙂
what should the consistency of the dough be? Mine is pretty runny, pancake consistency. I measured the flour by weight. Just wondering if I should add a little extra flour to thicken it up a little.
It’s supposed to be like a thick pancake batter. Did you watch the video on the post?
I was on my computer and it didn’t pop up but it did on my cell phone. Mine was definitely runnier than that with the flour by weight. It didn’t look right so I added more flour luckily and they turned out great this morning. Thank you for the recipe and feedback.
These muffins are the best I have tried. They freeze really well, and taste fantastic. It is so nice to have an English muffin again. Thank you!
Awesome, Cherie! Thank you so much 🙂
Hello! Just tried making the recipe.. I followed all the directions minus the electric skillet. I used a regular frying pan with a lid & measured the temperature and they didn’t cook through for some reason. Can you think of why this may have happened? Do you think oven would be a better bet?
You probably just didn’t cook them long enough. Having an electric skillet allows you to regulate the temperature better, allowing you to cook them low and slow, essentially baking them. On the stove top, you probably needed to cook them longer to get the same effect. However, I would think they would also work in the oven, turning them over halfway through cooking.
Great English muffins the first time. Love the easy-mix recipe. Set the bowl in the oven with the light on for rising since the AC was running. Baked perfectly in my glass-lidded Presto electric skillet with large R&M rings at 250 degrees. Filled them easily with a cookie scoop. Next time, I will fill them less – these rings are so big, when baked to the top of the ring, half a muffin is a serving. Thinking this would be a great base for a bacon and tomato sandwich, come summer tomatoes. Yum!
That’s awesome, Shirley 🙂 A bacon and tomato sandwich sounds so good, but I’ll wait for those summer tomatoes too 🙂
Replying to my May 25 review, I baked the second half of the batter 3 days after mixing and refrigerating and the muffins had even better yeasty flavor and tenderness than the ones baked the day after mixing. I froze the extras, already split with a fold of waxed paper between halves, in fold-top baggies inside a ziplock freeze bag. Toasted them frozen on the toaster ‘frozen’ setting. Perfect for a quick breakfast or snack.
That’s awesome, Shirley! Thanks for adding your tips 🙂
Incredible!! These taste exactly like the gluten filled ones I remember! I made a few without rings but after tasting them i quickly ordered rings off Amazon knowing I’ll be making these again in the future. Thank you!
Yay!!! Thanks, Mars 🙂
Kim, THANK YOU so much for your amazing recipes! I have just finished making the English muffins, 1/2 the dough went into pan pizza. Both were amazing!!! Even my husband, who is not GF, is in awe. These recipes, your methods are total game changers for me. I have tried so many GF bread recipes (including GF bread in 5 mins/day). Nothing has ever worked.
I made the artisan bread first and that was a WOW recipe too. I am in complete appreciation for your efforts to create simple and easy to follow recipes with accessable ingredients. Please keep up the great work! I’ll be following you!
Awe, thank you so very much for the wonderful comment, Ingrid!! I really appreciate it. I just refuse to settle for mediocre in my gluten free life and will continue to work hard on creating those foods I love and miss so much 🙂
I had a hard time getting the dough portioned correctly. Ended up with four giant muffins, four super-thin muffins, and four “normal” sized muffins. All of them, however, seemed under cooked and gooey in the middle. Will continue to play with the cooking time and temp a bit to see if I can get it right.
I love the taste of these. My question is, why do they have to go in the refrigerator for 4 hours? I tried leaving them overnight and had a disastrous outcome. I ended up trashing the entire 2 batches that I made. They are very time consuming. I have found that in order to get them done, I have to pop them in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes after they have cooked them and after removing the rings. If I raise the temperature on the pan I end up overcooking the outside.
I guess they wouldn’t have to be refrigerated, but they may not have as pronounced of a yeasty flavor. Are you using an electric skillet? If not, you may need to drop the temperature down on your skillet and cook them longer pre and post ring removal. Also, you may be adding too much dough to each ring. That could cause them to not cook fully through. Have you watched the video? It’s a pretty small portion of dough that gets added to each ring. Most breads, gluten free or not, take a long time to make, but shouldn’t be very time consuming at all in terms of hands-on time.
Hi Kim, I did watch the video. In order for them to be light and fluffy I add a little more than the video shows. I want to be able to split them easily. I am using a griddle with a lid. Temperature is set barely above warm. I have to make about 50 before this weekend along with a lot of other items.
Hi, Cindy. They should be light and fluffy without needing to add more dough to the rings because the dough will rise up, just like they do in the video. They’re able to be split very easily with either a fork (traditional) or knife (I like using a fork so it doesn’t mess up the nooks and crannies). I would set the temp to 200-250 degrees.
Ok. I will try that today. I’m using a cupcake scooper to measure. I spread to the ring and get a clean edge.
My count just went up. Now I have to bake another 24! These are amazing! Thank you so much for such a delicious recipe!
Thank you so much for all the time and effort put into these recipes! The English muffin and pizza crust recipes are awesome! Looking forward to trying more.
Your flour bread blend uses potato starch and whey protein, and I can’t have potato starch or whey protein or pea protein or soy protein. My questions are:
1. I usually replace potato starch with arrowroot starch. Do you think that will work?
2. What can I use to replace the protein stuff?
Thanks.
Hi, Carol! I haven’t tested it so I can’t say whether arrowroot would work, but it’s worth a shot. As far as the protein powder, there are links to substitutions right on my flour blends page that you can check out 🙂
Hey Kim, do you have a measurement amount of dough that is supposed to be spooned into the rings?
About a couple of tablespoons in each 🙂
Hi Kim, well you did it again. Thank you for a great recipe. Made your pan pizza for dinner last night, I will cook longer next time. 20 minutes with topping’s wasn’t long enough, so lessons learned. Mind you it was still delicious. Today used left overs and made English muffins. After I had cooked and cooled once split I acutually put back in the pan and cooked about 4 minutes longer and served with poached eggs, yummy. Left overs, froze and I’ll heat up in toaster. I have loved everyone of your recipes I have made so far. Need to remake my Sourdough starter and try the bread again, was good but not as good as I could’ve done. Practice makes perfect, can always tweak and know what to expect next time around. Thank you again and I look forward to new recipes, can’t wait to try your chocolate chip cookies.
Thank you so much, Shari!! I am absolutely thrilled you’re having such great success with all my recipes!
You’re gonna LOVE the chocolate chip cookies 🙂
These are amazing! I used the 2nd half of the focaccia bread batter to make these English Muffins. They’re fabulous! Thank you! I didn’t have muffin rings so I used wide-mouth mason jar lids and they worked pretty well. And, glad to hear that these muffins are good after freezing. A million thanks for making my GF life so much tastier!
Thanks so much, Drina!! I’m so glad you liked them 🙂
Kim, I am so happy to have found your site but your baking blends are the best! My croissants turned out so good! Unfortunately I can’t say the same with English Muffins and E.M. Bread. Regardless, after rising and looking terrific – the result is a product that deflates and/or has some degree of gummi-ness. Everything is measured by weight and things appear to go as planned. However the bread doesn’t cook internally (shows 190) and the E.M. will rise and cook above the rings but cool to half their size. I have tried and thrown away countless times…any ideas what to try?
Hmmmm, I’m not sure other than maybe they’re not being baked long enough? My electric skillet gets pretty hot and I can really control the temperature well (especially with the lid) so if you’re baking them in the oven, you may need to add a few more minutes to the baking time.
Hi Kim, This is the 2nd time I’m making these muffins, they’re so amazing! But, I have a question about the sugar measurement. You say 1 Tablespoon + 1 Teaspoon is 29 grams but my food scale shows it to be 16 grams. I went ahead and measured to 29 grams but just wanted to know which is correct? Or, perhaps my food scale needs to be recalibrated. I am using white granulated sugar. Can you please clarify?
Thanks!
Drina, thank you so much for catching this mistake!! You were right. The total grams should be 16 and not 29. I’m not sure where in the heck I got 29 (and it probably won’t make much of a difference in the dough), but I’m going to correct it right now to 16 grams.
Again, thanks so much for catching this for me 🙂
Thanks Kim. Nope, not much of a difference. They’re still delicious. 🙂
I just finished these this morning! They were amazing! I did use the King Arther gf blend from Costco, that was the only change to the ingredients I made. I cooked them on my cast iron skillet in rings at heat 2 and it was perfect!! The only thing I wondered about was the fridge length time, does it mater? I didn’t know if longer would give them more of a sourdough taste? Either way I just refrigerated overnight.
Yes, the longer they sit in the fridge they will ferment and develop a more sourdough taste! I do it all the time with my pizza dough, sometimes leaving it in the fridge for 10 days!! I like it better when it’s been in the fridge for a while.
Hi- I’m so excited to try this! But, I find that xantham gum doesn’t agree with me very well😕 Do you know if it’ll work without? Thx!
You could try to sub the xanthan gum with psyllium husk powder. In this recipe, I would use 2 tbsp.
Please let me know how they turn out 🙂
Kim, I know I just recently commented on your Italian bread , which was soooo good,and told you that I had made these English muffins but I just have to tell you, I made them this morning after the dough had been in the fridge for a few days and they were incredibly amazing! My husband couldn’t get over how delicious they were and he doesn’t even have to eat gluten-free! He said it was the best English muffin he had ever had and of course I said the same! I know you know how I feel when I say I almost wanted to start crying! When you go without so many things after being gluten-free and you find something this tasty you seriously want to start crying! I wanted to make a comment on these because if your other readers are like me, I like to read all the comments before making something because ,as you know, eating gluten-free is not cheap so before I spend the money on the ingredients I want to make sure that we are going to like it. Well you just won’t like these, you’ll love these! I put some creamed honey on one for breakfast this morning and I was in true heaven! Thank you so much for all of your hard work, you are simply amazing! Thank you so much!
You are too kind, Tracy! I really and truly appreciate every word you wrote and I completely understand how it feels to go without so many things and to be able to find joy in baking again AND eating! I’m so happy that my recipes can help you navigate through being gluten free a little easier.
God bless you and happy holidays 🙂 🙂 🙂
Oh Kim!! Have I got an idea for you! Take the English muffin recipe and fry it the skillet and cook for just a few minutes on each side, then pop them into a 400° oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown and puffed up. You now have a delicious Pita! Yummy! Want a bigger pita? Take more dough than usual and make a ball and flatten the dough, either pan fry on both sides or put it in the oven. You can turn pita halfway through cooking if desired. There you have it.
Sounds wonderful, Wanda! I will try it next time I make the dough 🙂
Kim, I wanted to thank you SO much for this recipe… you really knocked it outta the park with this one. I made the dough yesterday, through the 2-hour rise, and refrigerated it overnight. This morning I used half of it to make English muffins for our breakfast; simply outstanding. My husband usually doesn’t care for English muffins, but he tried one and just about fell over because it was so good. We are truly looking forward to the pan pizza tonight, using the other half of the dough! Also I wanted to pass along my compliments on your focaccia recipe, which I have made numerous times; another solid winner. Thanks for everything you do in developing these recipes, and double thanks for sharing them! You are the Gluten Free Queen, as far as I am concerned.
Oh my gosh, Teresa! You are too kind!! I am SO glad that you and your husband have been enjoying my recipes 🙂
Just made another batch of these, and I figured out something which makes one step easier, so I wanted to pass it along. I put some cornmeal in a spice jar that has a shaker cap (clean, of course!). It was soooo easy to shake out an even layer of cornmeal, rather than digging in the bag with a spoon or my fingers. I will keep my little jar of cornmeal in the cupboard, next to my regular supply of cornmeal, so it is ready to go next time. Thanks again for your fabulous recipes!
That is a GENIUS idea, Teresa!! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I am just getting ready to make these. I scaled the recipe down to 4 from 8 to see how my wife likes them. I started by measuring out the milk. 600 ml is a whole lot more than 1.25 C. A closer look and comparison with the 8 muffin recipe showed that the scaler does not scale the metric measures! Thank heaven I found this out before proceeding. You might want to make a note of this.
Thank you for noticing this!! I need to talk to the creator of my recipe card plugin and see if they can fix this, but I’m guessing because the flour blend is something that is my own recipe it may not work.
Again, thanks for informing me of this problem and I will hopefully find a solution soon 🙂
So I made the muffins. My wife is gluten intolerant and has pronounced all commercial English muffins except Glutino revolting. Glutino are pricey and often hard to find. Recently my 14 year old granddaughter, an avid baker, tried her hand at English muffins and that inspired me to see if I could find a gf version. I was very impressed by your site and the comments on your muffins, so I made the major investment in the whey protein (!) and the minor investment in the rings. Made the batter yesterday and and the muffins after the gym this morning. She was blown away-“they don’t taste gluten free”. She is excited to poach an egg tomorrow to be served on one of your muffins-. I got six from the recipe for four but could have made them a bit higher. Guess I will have to try some of your other breads.
Awesome, Todd!! I’m thrilled your wife liked them! Now you’ve got me craving eggs benedict 🙂
I really want to try and make these this weekend but I don’t have “superfine” rice flour. I only have “stone ground” rice flour. Do you know if that will work?
Is that Bob’s Red Mill? A few readers had problems with it and so did I, so I’m honestly not sure if it will work. You could try it and add a little more liquid (like 1/4 cup) because the grainier the rice flour, the more it will soak up liquid.
What is the sodium in your English Muffins? I would like to try them but am limited to less that 375 mags of sodium.
I don’t know, but there are apps on the internet that gives the nutritional information. It costs so much more money per month for me to get the nutritional information on my recipes so I’m not in the position to afford that at this moment.
If you don’t have an electric skillet, it took three tries and many hours in my toaster oven to get this right. Tip #1: use the bottom rack in your oven or toaster oven. Tip #2: I used a metal cake pan and a glass pot lid (made it easy to watch the cooking process!) Tip #3: I don’t know about your ovens, but neither 200°, 225°, 250°, 275° nor 300° worked. The sweet spot for me was 325° for a minimum of 16 minutes before turning the muffins over. The muffins were still a little gummy in the middle, but tip #4: you have to let the muffins rest and cool down before trying to fork split them.
The flavor is great – thanks!
Hi, Donna! I’m so glad you liked the muffins and I appreciate all the tips!! Of note, I suggest in the recipe that if you don’t have an electric skillet you use a regular skillet over a medium low flame (on the stovetop) with a tight fitting lid. It works just as well as using an electric skillet. I also state in my recipe that you need to allow the muffins to cool completely before splitting with a fork. This is actually true of any breads, or they will be gummy on the inside 🙂
thanks for your reply Kim! For subsequent batches I did switch to using an iron skillet on my stovetop.
Hi! How are you?
I wanna ask about whether I should let the dough come to room temp after we take it out of the fridge? Or we just cook it right away.
It’s gonna be the first time trying it out and I’ve been reading your posts. That’s the only thing I wonder about.
Thanks
It’s not necessary for it to come to room temp and can be baked right away 😋
Is it possible to replace the whey isolate protein powder with powdered coconut milk
No, I don’t think it would work as there isn’t really any protein in it.